Safety gas-burner.



PATBNTED SEPT/17, 1907.

F. B. BEHM & R. J. WILEY.-

SAFETY GAS BURNER.

APPLIOATION' FILED JULY 8, 1905.

Witness Mm and unlocking means.

UNlTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FORREST E. BEHM AND ROBERT J. WILEY, OF OMAHA, NEBRASKA.

SAFETY GAS-BURNER. i

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 17, 1907.

Application filed July 8,1905. Serial No. 268,897.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that Founnsr E. BEHM and ROBERT J. WILEY, citizens of the United States, residing at Omaha, in the county of Douglas and State of Nebraska, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Safety Gasl3urners, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to improvements in safety gas burners, and has for its primary object the presentation of means for the turning on of gas and for locking the valve in a fixed position after the gas has been turned off, so that the supply cannot be resumed except by the intentional act of the operator; also has reference to the employment of a thumb-piece for use in rotating the valve which may be operated readily and conveniently in conjunction with the unlocking means, by one manual movement.

With these and other objects in view the invention presents a novel construction and arrangement of parts as described herein, pointed out by the claims, and as shown by the drawings, wherein,-

Figure 1 represents an end view of the burner and side view of locking and unlocking means: Fig. 2 represents a side view of the gas burner to clearly show relative position of parts, as chamber 6, circular platform or face 14 with which the plunger contacts and slots 16 and 17. Fig. 3 represents a sectional view of the plug-valve, and side view of thumb-piece, locking Fig. 4 represents a side view of resiliently mounted spindle, the sleeve being in section. Fig. 5 shows a broken-away portion of plugvalve 5, being the outer end thereof, with slot 18 formed thereon within which Washer 19 may be seated, this being a well known construction to prevent screwloosening. Fig. 6 is a sectional view of the sleeve and thumb-piece.

In the several figures of the drawing, the numeral 1 represents an ordinary gas supply pipe through which an opening extends to the hollow casing 2, and upon the latter is seated burner-stand 3 with gagetip 4; the numeral 5 represents a revoluble plug-valve adapted to have a seating within chamber 6, the latter being formed in the hollow casing 2, this casing, therefore, furnishing a housing for the valve, and when these parts are operatively placed, as shown in Fig. 1, a flow of gas may be made from the supply pipe to the gage-tip by causing the transversely formed opening 21 to be in alinement with the burner-stand, as is well known; to cause a cessation 'of the flow of gas, plug 5 is partly revolved so that the lengthwise opening 21 will present a right angle to the burner-stand. The act of turning off the gas is generally accomplished by use of a thumb-piece located upon the plug-valve near the burner-stand, in a well known manner. The act of turning the thumb'piece 90 degrees of the axial center of the valve causes the burning of gas to cease;

and continuing the rotation of the valve by use of the thumb-piece an additional 90 degrees, causes the flow of gas to be renewed, and since there would be no burning or consumption of this additional flow of gas in such case, there would be a loss of gas, and the fatalities resulting from inhalation of gas which has thus been lost, by reason of the careless rotation of the thumb-piece where the valve passes to 180 degrees, and thereby turned on instead of being turnedoff, have been well known. I

A guard has been employed, generally, upon the face of the hollow casing which contains the valve-socket and a corresponding lug used upon the adjacent contacting-wall of the valve which prevents rotation of the valve for over 90 degrees, but it is well known that users of gas, through being misinformed or other reason, cause a reverse rotation of the valve with a view of ef fectually cutting off the supply of gas, and after having completed the operation, leave the gas supply in a turned on position, and therefore the construction and use of said guard is not effective to prevent these fatalities, as is well known. In order that these accidents may not occur we construct the sleeve 7, having a closed end 11 and having an open end adapted to inclose a spindle 8 (Fig. 4.) for the greater part of its length; the spindle is provided with an annular enlargement 9 substantially equal to the diameter of the sleeve. The spindle is made rigid with cap 22, and, within the depression between the annular enlargement 9 and the closed end of the sleeve, upon the lengthwise portion of the spindle is seated the spiral spring 15. As thus constructed a part of the spindle projects outwardly beyond the wall of the sleeve and forms the plunger 10; and the spindle 8, the cap 22 and plunger 10 may be drawn longitudinally so that the plunger will pass inwardly within the wall of the sleeve, subject to the resilient action of the spring, and upon releasing the spindle from action of the spring, said spindle will be propelled outwardly with reference to the sleeve, and cap 22 will return to a contact position with the closed end 11 of the sleeve, this position being best shown by Fig. 4.

Sleeve 7 is preferably constructed integral with thumb-piece '12, the latter being conveniently formed by extending the material of the plug-valve, and when the parts are operatively placed the sleeve, spindle and plunger occupy a position at right angles to the face 14 of the casing 2 and transverse to burner-stand 3. The valve 5 is adapted to rotate within its chamber 6, carrying the thumb-piece, by means of which it may be rotated; the plunger 10 makes contact with the face 14 of the hollow casing 2, the end of the plunger having a pressure upon said face by reason of spring 15. By this construction, face 14 occupies a single plane transverse to the presentation of the plunger, and during the operation of turning on or off, the plunger rides upon face 14 and enters slots 16 and 17, and, upon entering one of these slots, as has already been explained, the gas is turned off and the gas-valve locked.

We construct washer 19 seated upon the extremity of valve 5 adapted to ride thereon in a fixed position with reference thereto by means of the break of its curved inner wall conforming to the angular slot 18 of the valve (Fig. 5.);

We construct slots 16 and 17 within face 14 these slots being transversely formed with reference to said face and formed substantially opposite each other at points 90 degrees from the central plane of burner-stand 3, described by the line a b of Fig. 2, and as thus constructed, the valve and other parts being in operative position as shown in Fig. 1, the opening 21 of the valve (Fig. 3.) is not in alinement with the openings of the pipe connections which admit the gas supply, and the gas is, therefore, closed off. At this time the end of the plunger 10 occupies a position within one of the slots 16 or 17, and it is evident that the gas cannot be turned on except by the act ofrthe operator in withdrawing the plunger from such slot by overcoming the resiliency of spring 15, and, in order to overcome this resiliency it is necessary to manually exert a pulling force upon cap 22 in a direction lengthwise with valve 5, the plunger-end then rides upon the surface of face 14 until it reaches one of slot-openings 16 or 17, at which time the plunger, under action of the spring passes into one of these slots and is prevented from any further movement. It will thus be seen that the invention is effective to prevent the turning on or off of gas except by the intentional act of the operator.

The cap 22 has a greater diameter than sleeve 7 and i it has a depressed holding-space 20 to aid manipulation; the thumb-piece 12 consists of a thin body-portion or leaf, and, in overcoming the resiliency of the spring, the convenience for manipulation of the thumbpiece and cap 22 is apparent, since it requires only the thumb and index finger to manually withdraw the plunger and at the same time to partly rotate the valve, and thereby allow the plunger to contact with the face 14 on which it rides.

We are aware that notched contact faces for the valve casing in connection with spring-actuated plungers have been heretofore employed to lock the valves, and therefore we do not claim the same broadly.

What we do claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is,

In a safety gas burner, the combination of a valve-casing; provided with a flat contactface 'with transverselyi'ormed slots therein, a revoluble valve axially seated in the valve-casing and extended longitudinally to form thereon between its ends a radially-disposed leaf; a sleeve secured radially upon the longitudinal extension of said revoluble valve and oppositely-disposed to said leaf; a springactuated plunger seated within the sleeve and extended outwardly beyond the planes of the valve and sleeve to form a holding-cap and extended inwardly within the longitudinal plane of said sleeve while actuated by said spring to a transverse seatingupon the flat contact-face of the valve-casing or to an engagement with one of said transversely-formed slots therein.

In testimony whereof we affix our signatures in presence of two witnesses.

FORREST E. BEHM. ROBT. J. WILEY.

Witnesses:

H. A. Srunens, CHAS. COLLINS. 

